


Do not go gentle into that good night.

by starktower



Series: Do not go gentle into that good night. [1]
Category: Black Panther (2018), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Steve Rogers Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, possible Steve Rogers/Tony stark if you squint, you can decide if they will get together or not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 18:08:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13816632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starktower/pseuds/starktower
Summary: Tony returns to earth with his new team the guardians of the galaxy, to warn his former team about an incoming attack.





	Do not go gentle into that good night.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy this fic.
> 
> this was not beta'ed so any mistake made is mine.
> 
> I own nothing.

It’s funny how people’s perspective changes in such a short period, from the dawn of time humans have looked up at the vast black space with trepidation and wonder, wanting to unravel the infinite mysteries it jealously concealed, but those feelings quickly changed when one of those mysteries opened a portal right above New York, yet in the middle of the chaos that ensued , unlikely heroes arose and banded together to fight for their home, for their people and against all odds they won, but the image of space had been forever changed in the minds of humans , they learned to fear its secrets and dread it’s darkness. 

Yet here stood Tony stark looking at a bright, colorfully blue planet that he once called home, from the Window shield of the Milano, feeling the same dread that he felt once looking up at the dark skies.

It has been almost two years since the ‘Civil War’, as the media had dubbed it, happened. The accords had been erased completely during the Ex-Secretary of State’s trial, seeing the clear and blatant misuses of the Accords had put off Civilians and Heroes alike, to the relief of most of the superhero community, but it didn’t change the fact that the Rogue-Avengers were still persona non-grata in most countries and are still awaited to answer for their crimes, accords being instated or not.

It had been a year and half since Tony had received a distress call from near outer space, and after having one of his most severe Panic attacks he answered the call out of curiosity and never regretted it once.

It’s been over a year since Tony left earth with the Guardians of the Galaxy, he had joined the already formed team/family in their mission to hunt down Thanos and Stop him from acquiring all the infinity stones.

A warm and familiar hand came up to rest on his shoulder, pulling the tired hero out of his dark memories.

“You alright there Tony?” Asked Quill, him and tony had hit it off quiet instantly, their love for rock music and the overuse of pop culture references had forged a strong bond that only was rivaled by his best friend back on earth.

God, he missed Rhodey.

“Would you believe me if I said yes?” Inquired tony turning his head to look at his friend.

“No, but I would respect your choice if you don’t want to talk about it” replied Peter with a simple shrug

Tony looked at Peter’s face and felt a wave of fondness and gratitude warming him, he sighed and looked back at earth. They had been orbiting around Terra for the past eight hours staying undetected as Tony tried accessing Wakanda’s network to inform the king of their arrival (which he did on the first hour) and let the team rest from their latest brush with death.

“No, I am not, I don’t know how to feel about seeing them, about seeing _him_ ” confessed tony as he crossed his arms in front of his chest in a clear defensive gesture.

“You know you don’t have to do this, we could just leave them a quick note and get the hell out of here and get on with frankly far more pressing matters.” answered Peter confidently while putting an arm round Tony’s shoulders in a comforting manner.

“Nah, thanks buddy but I need to do this, and the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can get out of here and get on with our rescue mission”.

Peter just nodded, trusting tony to tell him if he changed his mind.

“Alright then, let me get Gamora and we’ll head down to Whiskas City”

Tony snorted and turned back looking at Earth, the African Continent stood proudly in front of him, still and unaware of the danger it awaits it.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Upon their arrival Gamora, Peter and Tony were met with king T’Challa’s Royal guards, the famous Dora Milaje stood in formation facing them, their spears held proudly next to them, they made for an intimidating sight that’s for sure, Tony guessed that was the purpose.

“Mr. Stark, it is good to hear from you, though we don’t appreciate people intruding on our privacy without being invited to.” said the leader of the Dora Milaje voice as impassive and unimpressed as the expression on her face, a woman Tony had already met when she was accompanying King T’Challa during their many meetings concerning the Accords.

“Thank you, Miss Okoye, and believe me I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for grieve matters” said Tony donning his best fake smile.

Okoye seemed to be somewhat surprised, if to go by the tiny twitch of her eyebrow, that he remembered her name.

“His Highness king T’Challa is waiting for you inside, better not keep him waiting then” she said before she turned and made her way towards the palace without a backward glance.

“I like them” piped up Gamora with a pleased and impressed look on her face.

Tony snorted while peter sighed.

“Figures, green beans”.

Tony looked at his teammates and made to follow Okoye before she disappears completely.

The engineer barely payed attention to his surrounding, focusing instead on what he was going to do or say to his former Teammates, and whether Barnes was going to be there or not.

Was he ready to face them, no he wasn’t, Tony didn’t think he’ll ever be ready to face them, doesn’t mean he won’t.

And soon enough they were faced with two heavy set of doors of dark red wood with silver inscriptions and drawings.

Okoye pushed the heavy-set doors and it seemed like all the air rushed out of Tony’s lungs because he couldn’t breathe.

They were all there.

All of them.

Looking at him.

He felt two different sets of hands take both of his and squeeze, Gamora and Peter had each taken a side putting the Genius between them.

God, he loved his Team.

He looked back at the Room, the eyes shifted towards Gamora, he’s never been more grateful for her greenness, everyone except for Rogers, he was looking at Tony, only at Tony, expression full of emotions, Tony looked away before he could read anything into them.

“Mr. Stark, I am glad to see you well, you have been dearly missed this last year.” Said T’Challa with his trademark heavily charming accent, and doesn’t the bastard look genuine when he said it.

Tony inclined his head respectfully.

“Thank you, your highness” Tony left it purposely at that before he continued “I’d like you to meet my team”

“This is our Captain/Leader, Star Lord aka. Peter Quill” gesturing to a pleasingly surprised Peter before he turned to his right

“And this is Gamora, mostly known in outer space as the _deadliest woman in the whole galaxy.”_ Said Tony with a grin knowing she loved the description even though she claims the contrary.

“Guys this is the king of Wakanda, T’Challa” he continued with the presentation ignoring the others completely.

“Your Highness, thank you for seeing us in such short notice and _discreet_ manner.” Said Tony.

T’Challa merely inclined his head in acknowledgement.

Tony took a deep breath, ‘ _here goes nothing’_.

“I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Wakanda is in grave danger” as soon as he spoke, it felt like all the air in the room grew denser, he could see T’Challa stiffen and the Dora Milaje tighten their hold on their spears.

“And what makes you say that” asked T’Challa with a calm voice, though the intensity of his eyes betrays his disarray.

“Almost a year and half ago I got a distress call from somewhere in outer space. the Guardians” began Explaining Tony, gesturing to his teammates. “Had just had an encounter with some unfriendlies and their ship was left in desperate need of repairs, so they had contacted the closest planet to their position, earth, luckily my satellite Veronica ended up piking their distress call.” Said tony looking at his friends who were smiling at him recalling their first encounter with fondness “Anyways after I helped with the repairs, they told me about their mission to hunt down a being called Thanos, that had been collecting the Infinity Stones to take over the- well everything.” Tony paused in his explanation and turned towards his former teammates.

“We’ve actually encountered two of those, the Space Stone aka the tesseract. And the mind Stone aka. Loki’s Scepter aka. The same gem that is sitting on our favorite synthetic Red Android’s forehead.”

A collective gasp came from the Avengers, as they looked at each other with unease.

“Have you laid eyes on Thanos” piped up Nakia, one of king T’Challa’s personal guards.

“Not personally, otherwise I wouldn’t be here speaking with you” said Tony ominously

“Then how-“

“Because he is my father” broke in Gamora.

“Gamora you don’t have to-. “started Peter knowing how much she hated this part of her past.

“But I do, we don’t have time to stay _here_ and convince them when we have a mission to get to, a mission that becomes more and more impossible the more we stay here.” Replied Gamora with heat in her voice.

Peter stared at her for a few moments before he nodded and took her hand in his in support.

Tony was glad that Peter and Gamora had each other.

“I am last of my species, the Zen-Whoberis, we were exterminated by the Badoon. Thanos found me as a child and decided to use me as a weapon. I was raised and trained by him to assassinate the Magus, an evil alternate version of Adam Warlock. Thanos showed me little kindness during my childhood, but i was very loyal to the man who promised me the opportunity to avenge the death of my family. I became very proficient in martial arts, earning the nickname _"The deadliest woman in the whole galaxy"_. He cybernetically enhanced me to superhuman-as you say- levels. Thus, turning me more into a weapon, but Thanos revealed himself as an even-greater threat, not only did I discover that he was responsible for my and multitude of other species exterminations, but he was doing it all so that he can court Lady Death, and now he wants to take over the universe and exterminate all living thing as tribute and show of love to her, he managed to hunt down two of the stones, the power Stone is already in his grasp but the reality stone we managed to intercept and managed to kill one the black order.”

“Black order? “asked Wilson.

Tony piped up wanting to reprieve Gamora from talking about her past even more than she had to, and from the grateful smile that she gave him, he did good.

“Even for someone as powerful and feared as Thanos, maintaining an iron grip on the universe isn't an easy task. To help lighten the load, he relies on an elite group known as the Black Order. Each member of this exclusive club shares Thanos' bloodlust and thirst for conquest, and each has his or her own unique set of abilities they bring to the fight. The order consists of five generals, each hand-picked by Thanos for their power and ability to inspire fear.”

“Lovely” murmured Natasha.

But Tony payed her no mind before continuing.

“Corvus Glaive – “. He said as his opened the palm of his hand and a holographic image of the being popped up.  “The most favored of Thanos' generals, Corvus Glaive has great strength and speed and wields a blade that can cut through anything. As long as he holds that blade, Corvus is effectively immortal.”

The image abruptly changed to another being, this time female

“Proxima Midnight - Corvus' wife Proxima is incredibly strong and the most gifted fighter among the Black Order. Her spear can fire deadly light beams that almost never miss their targets.”

The hologram changes again to a Big ugly male alien.

“Black Dwarf - Brother to Corvus, Black Dwarf is the powerhouse of the Black Order. His immense strength and durable hide make him an almost unstoppable opponent.”

Tony waves his hand and another being pops up,

“Ebony Maw - More a schemer than a fighter, Ebony Maw is a highly intelligent sadist whose voice can manipulate victims into doing anything he desires.”

“And finally” the hologram displayed a new member of the Order.

“Supergiant - Supergiant is a powerful telepath who also wields advanced technology like force field generators and teleporters. But don’t worry about this one anymore he was the one we killed in our latest mission to intercept them, we managed to take the reality stone, but they got away with the power Stone and almost killed us all, Rocket managed to take Supergiant out before we escaped”

“Rocket?” asked Steve.

“Yeah, one of my teammates”

“Wait how many are you, I thought it was just the three of you” asked Clint incredulously.

Peter and Gamora snorted while Tony rolled his eyes.

“The rest of our team stayed in the ship, they are resting or recovering from our encounter with the Black order, aside from the three of us, there are six others, one of them is another ‘daughter’ of Thanos and sister to Gamora, they grew up together, she was gravely injured, but she is recovering in the ship’s med bay”

“Where you also should be” piped up Peter looking at Tony with exasperation.

“I already told you I’m fine”

“I don’t understand humans, how could you be fine after being tossed like a rock repeatedly by the Black order, and then barely managed to not get disintegrated an infinity stone” Snapped Gamora clearly frustrated with her friend’s clear disregard of his safety.

“Oh my god, can we please drop this, it was nothing, I am clearly in tip top shape, and can you honestly say that we didn’t face worse this past year”

“No, we haven’t, and you always put yourself in danger for us, you know you’re not expandable right, you’re our friend, family even and we don’t leave people behind, not even infuriating geniuses who have a survivor complex the size of Peter’s father” refuted Gamora.

“Hey” exclaimed Tony somewhat offended and somewhat touched by his team’s concern.

The Others were looking at the interaction with amusement and sadness.

They looked like a team, like the Avengers were before the accords, before Ultron.

The loud noise of the heavy door opening reverberated in the room as a young slender woman came in looking frantic.

“Brother -No don’t look at me like that this is important- I just picked up a space ship hovering over us, a literal space ship, and I don’t know how we didn’t detect it before, but it looks like it’s been there for a _least_ half a day.” She kept on rambling clearly fascinated and excited and at the same time kind of on edge.

“Don’t worry about that, it’s our ship” Exclaimed Tony clearly amused.

The young woman turned at the sound of his voice as she noticed the Guardians for the first time.

“Oh sorry- wait … oh my god, Mr. Stark? is that you? but how and –“then she looked at Peter and Gamora.

Then as if his were finally clicked she exclaimed.

“Wait you were in _Space_ , that is _so_ cool, and what is that you’re wearing it looks so unwordly” she continued rambling as she came up to Tony and started touching his under suit, checking it methodically.

Tony was wearing a skin tight black under suit with symmetric bands the color of the arc reactor all over it and all edging towards the actual arc reactor sitting in the center of Tony’s chest.

“What is it made of, I’ve never seen anything like it” as she continued inspecting the material, she accidently pinched Tony’s nipple.

Tony flinched “Nipple, Ow”

But he was more amused than annoyed, she reminded him of his Peter Spider-kid.

“Sister, stop pestering our guests and would you please stop touching people without their permission” T’Challa reprimanded his sister, but his voice full of fondness.

“I apologize for my sister’s brashness”

And as if her actions finally dawned on her, Shuri blushed and apologized clearly flustered by herself.

Tony snorted while Gamora and Peter were looking at her with amusement, clearly reminded of their teammate when he got too excited.

“No worries your highness” Tony shrugged the apologies before he looked at Shuri again.

“Don’t worry about it, I get it, I mean the first time I met Bruce Banner, I actually poked him with an electrified stick, while we were in an aircraft thousands of feet in the air.”

He could hear snorts coming from the other side of the room as the avengers remembered the story.

While Shuri’s eyes widened impossibly.

“No _way_ , that is so cool”

“Well not everyone thought it back then, but hey us geniuses have our own way of seeing the world right princess”

Shuri just nodded, before she looked at the suit that Tony was wearing again, and curiosity filled her eyes.

“But seriously, I’ve never seen this material before, it looks a little like Vibranium, but also not.”

“That’s because it’s not, it was a gift from a celestial being called the Silver Surfer, it is actually a component of his skin and it is said to be the strongest and most resilient material in the universe, The Surfer gifted us -The Guardians that is- enough of It so we can confect our suits with it after we helped him with a -let just go with personal favor-“

Peter snorted but was quickly elbowed in the stomach by Gamora.

Tony glared at Peter.

“A material stronger than vibranium, fascinating” exclaimed T’Challa clearly Captivated by the suit.

“It was actually why we came here personally” he took the suitcase that Peter had been holding the whole time.

“To deliver you this” he opened the suitcase and all the people in the room edged closer to look at the Silver material that seemed almost liquid inside of it.

“Is this-“ said T’Challa clearly surprise at the gesture.

“Yes, this is the same material in its raw form” he then handed it to Shuri.

“This will be enough for you to make suits of armor for yourself your brother the avengers and some of the Dora Milaje. And believe me you’re going to need it, because this bad boy, is the only reason we survived our encounter with the Black order.”

At that the tension that had dissipated over the course of the meeting seemed to return tenfold.

“Can you tell us why you believe this Black Order will be targeting in us.” asked T’Challa wearily.

“Because you are unknowingly in possession of the soul Stone.” Whatever T’Challa and the others were expecting was clearly not this.

“I know this must seem impossible for you to believe but it is the truth” continued Peter

“Thousands of years ago, each stone was being protected and hidden in a corner of the universe, they were guarded by the Six,  they were powerful beings but even them couldn’t compare to the power of the Mad Titan, Thanos, he attacked the Six and killed all of them, but luckily five of them managed to send the stones elsewhere before the titan could get a hold on them, though the last of the six was killed before he could send his stone away, it was the mind stone”

“Wait- what, I am confused isn’t that stone the one that Vision has” asked incredulously Clint.

“Yeah” confirmed Tony “It was actually Thanos that sent Loki and the Chitauri to retrieve the tesseract aka the Space Stone, he gave the Scepter to Loki so he can bring him the other gem, but well we know how that played out.”

“Holly shit” exhale Sam “Fuck I didn’t sign up for this shit”

“You think anyone of us did” chided Natasha.

“Anyways “Interrupted Peter as he continued with his story.

“One of the Six, the one that guarded the Soul stone and who managed to survive Thanos attack, Encased the stone in a meteor from the material the planet he was hiding in was composed of, Vibranium, and sent it as far away from Thanos as he could, anyone wants to guess where it crashed ?”

“Wakanda” Breathed T’Challa, something unkinglike passed through his face for a second before it smoothed out.

“Wakanda” confirmed Tony.

“wait so how many of these stones are on earth now” asked Lang looking clearly overwhelmed.

“Three” replied Tony.

That seemed to break the heavy silence that settled on the room, as the people inside of it began shouting there disbelieve.

Tony, Peter and Gamora looked at each other, clearly getting impatient to get back up in the safety of their ship, of their home so they can go back to their mission.

“Silence” commanded T’Challa.

When silence finally reigned T’Challa looked back at Tony.

“I wasn’t aware that there was a third Stone currently on earth”.

“Yeah, the Time stone, or mostly known here as the eye of Agamotto, it is currently in the possession of Steven Strange, the sorcerer supreme of earth. I’ve already contacted him and vision, so they can be aware of the black order and the threat that they pose on them, and unfortunately on earth. Stephen suggested they travel to other dimensions for the time being until we can solve to threat that is Thanos, so now Vision is currently in Kamar-Taj with Stephen strange. And that is the safest place they could be right now.”

Wanda didn’t seem to agree to that statement from the way her face was frowning.

“Is he going to be okay?” she asked hesitantly.

Tony looked at her intensely, this is the girl ‘no woman’ that had made her lifegoal to kill him, she was the one that catalyzed Ultron, the woman that sent Ja-Vision into a crater, the same woman that dropped several cars on him. But at the same time, she wasn’t, the anger and distrust that always were in her eyes seemed to have dispersed and replaced by understanding and regret, whatever happened to her this past couple years, seemed to have finally opened her eyes to the world.

“He is going to be as okay as anyone can be in this situation, sadly I cannot guaranty his safety or any of ours for that matter.” Wanda nodded understandably seeming to accept his answer easily.

“Oh, Before I forget, here”. he produced a black USB-like devise and threw it towards Natasha.

“That thing has all the information we have on everything from the Thanos to the black order to the infinity stones, the weapons they use, their strengths and weaknesses, read it and make sure to train accordingly, get ready accordingly, I trust the Princess – and I could think of no one better for this job- to get you all ready for the fight” Shuri beamed at Tony’s appraisal and nodded before she flew out of the room, most likely towards her labs to start her work.

“Because there will be a fight, I cannot give you an exact estimate because I don’t know, it could be tomorrow, it could be the day after, but I greatly doubt it as they are far away, what I can give you is that they’ll strike before the next month ends, so be sure to be ready by then.” He paused and looked at the avengers.

“The USB also has the schematics to B.A.R.F.”

That seemed to draw a harsh breath from Natasha as she quickly understood the implications.

“Tony-.“

“Romanoff. Don’t. I am not doing this for any of you, we need all the help we can get and If Barnes isn’t battle ready, you’ll have one of the heavy hitters down, and you cannot afford it, not in this.”

At the mention of his name Bucky looked up from where he was staring at his hand confused.

“B.A.R.F.?” he asked with a raw from disuse voice.

When Tony got into the Wakandan system he found out about the mission to help Barnes get rid of H.Y.D.R.A.’s programming, he had been awake for almost Three months, but nothing seemed to be working, maybe Tony could help, he knew that Barnes was just as a Victim as him and his parents were, so maybe he could right a wrong that was nobody’s fault but H.Y.D.R.A’s.

“It’s a device that I created over three years ago, that could help PTSD patients overcome their traumas, B.A.R.F or The Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing device can, in theory get rid of the programming.”

Silence reigned in the room as everyone seemed to weight in the enormity of the action.

Peter and Gamora both smiled proudly at their friend.

“I-I don’t… _Why_?” asked Barnes brokenly.

“Because I can, because my parents deserve some closure, because you deserve to get your life back, because I finally realized that you’re just as much as a victim as my parents were, and you’re not the person I am really angry about.” Tony paused looking at the captain who looked away eyes seemingly shinning with unshed tears. “Choose whatever reason makes you feel better”.

“Anyhow” cut in Peter before things could escalate “It’s been lovely spending time in Catnip Land, but We have to go now” as he grabbed Tony by the shoulder and started stirring him towards the exit.

“Wait, you’re not staying?” asked Sam voice panicky.

Apparently voicing everyone’s thoughts if their expressions is to go by.

“Well no, like we said we’re here to warn you and to give you the means, but in no way, we’re staying here, we can’t we have a mission to go through”.

“What could be more important than helping us face the Black Order”.

“Mr. Stark, I know that there are some unsolved tensions between all of us, but can’t we put that aside and band together against a common enemy” Said T’Challa trying to be the voice of reason but the only thing he managed to do is grate on Tony’s already raw nerves.

“Well isn’t that high and mighty of you, your highness” that seemed to take the king aback, not expecting the bite in the tone, especially not towards him.

“I came here to warn you and to prepare you for the battle that you were unaware of completely, a battle you would’ve without a doubt lost, yet you still ask for more, aren’t you supposed to be the most advanced country in the world, you figure it out your highness. Because apparently, I am only worthy of your time when you have a need of me, don’t you?” T’Challa was ready to refute but tony barreled on.

“Don’t even try to deny It. You only were in my team to hunt down Barnes, which you did for most of the conflict, but when I needed you to help me contain these asshats you went in your avenging rampage. You deserted your post and caused the whole plan to derail which (though not directly) caused my best friend to fall to his near death, but he survived because my Rhodey is a survivor even though his spine was completely shattered, he still survived. And again, when we needed you to reign in the political shit storm that the fight engendered you bailed. Only to reappear in Siberia, where I was fighting two super soldiers, because after finding out that Barnes was not the killer of your father you lost interest in him, which by the way rogers if I really wanted to kill your precious boyfriend you both would’ve been dead in a matter of seconds, remember that my suit has the firepower to take out whole encampments of terrorists, shitload of aliens and their flying whales, fire breeding assholes and murderous robots, do you really think that two geriatric solders pumped full of Viagra would be that much of a difficult task. I could’ve killed both of you many times over, but I didn’t because I didn’t _want_ to, what I wanted was to hurt you like I was hurting then, but I never wanted to _kill_ any of you”

“I _know_ tony, I know- please…” tried to say Steve eyes brimming with pain and regret.

“You don’t fucking _know_ , you don’t fucking know what it feels like to watch you parents getting brutally slaughtered, with their killer standing just a few feet away, you don’t know the feeling of having your- your; whatever the fuck we were to each other; lie to you to your face for two years about your parents murder, you kept choosing him every day for two years, and never once even thought of what-“ tony stopped choking on his words, throat sore, Gamora and peter were both holding him back down from going near Steve.

“ _Please_ tony, you don’t _know_ how much it _killed_ me having to lie to you, but he’s my friend. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t, _please_ understand”

“Like I said in that bunker, so _was_ I”

He then turned to T’Challa. “You also left me in Siberia, in a broken suit of armor with no contact and no way of exiting, while taking in people you considered your enemies just minutes before, before yet again disappearing leaving me to clean the mess, so you see your highness I don’t _owe_ you shit, I came here in good faith and I’ll leave in good conscience knowing that I did my part, now do _yours_ ”

T’Challa looked pained, but held his head high, before he inclined his head in acknowledgement.

“I did not know that I cause you pain, I was grieving, and I know now that does not excuse my behavior, and for that I am sorry, I genuinely thought we were on good terms, but I can see now that I haven’t done anything to warrant that thought”

Tony looked at T’Challa right in the eye before he too nodded, nothing was forgiven but the geniune apology did make a difference, however small.

“Tony, you didn’t answer the question, what is more important than being here” asked Natasha, clearly knowing something was not being said, something big.

The others looked back at the genius clearly dreading whatever the genius was going to say next.

“Rescuing Thor and Bruce from Thanos’s Clutches” replied Tony coolly.

“What?” asked Natasha clearly shocked, the others didn’t look any better.

Tony finally looked at her and sighed, the fight beginning to drain from him.

“Apparently Bruce spent the last _two_ years in space as the hulk, he then _somehow_ met with Thor and then I don’t know, all I do know is that Thanos has them, along with the Asgardian people and our favorite green God of mischief”

“Fucking hell” whispered Clint as he put his face in his hands to keep the panic at bay.

“Barton, Quick question, do you remember Loki’s eye colors?” asked tony wanting to confirm something he’s been suspecting.

Barton looked up frowning, “Blue, why?”

“Because his eyes are green” replied Tony easily, letting the answer sink in.

“You mean…” asked Clint.

“Yep” confirmed Tony.

“Euh, can anyone explain to the newbies, you know the people that weren’t there in New York, which is actually most people in the room” inquired Lang nervously.

“What he said” pipped up Sam.

“When the scepter takes over someone’s mind It turn their eyes blue, whereas Loki’s eyes are green”

A pause.  

 “Oh”

“Yeah”.

After a moment of silence as people absorbed the twist that they just unraveled, Peter cut in.

“Tones, we _really_ got to go buddy. People to rescue and all that jazz, plus I don’t like the thought of rocket staying unattended for too long”

“Oh god, you don’t need to tell me twice, let’s go”.

 Tony turned to the others.

“Good luck guys, I don’t know _if_ or _when_ we’ll see each other next, but yeah, good luck.”

The guardians of the galaxy made their way to the palace courtyard followed by everyone.

There were gasps of surprise when Tony, Peter and Gamora were beamed up suddenly.

“Okay that was equally freaky and cool” said Lang.

Steve looked up at the sky feeling like he lost something he didn’t know he had, permanently.

He inhaled sharply, before he strained up.

“were you and him…” murmured Bucky to Steve.

Steve looked at his best friend and smiled sadly before he returned his gaze to the empty sky. “No, we weren’t.”

Bucky looked long at his friend’s profile.

“I am sorry.”

“Yeah”  

.

.

.

“Me too.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
